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THE CABAL
"Socially Responsible Tourism" Comes to Israel |
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| As tourism revives, more and more visitors want to see Israel's darker side | |
 by David Shneer, December 14, 2007 |
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Israel is trying to sex up its image.
The July issue of Maxim 
Sexy Israel: Maxim's "Women of the IDF" feature was cooked up in the Israeli consulate led with a spicy photo spread of the "Women of the
Israel Defense Force"—an idea pitched to the magazine by the Israeli consulate in New York. And
Kobi Israel's homoerotic photographs of Israeli male soldiers have
helped give the country a sexy, queer image around the world.
Recent statistics show that these efforts to sex-up Israel's image are working. Tourism to Israel, which virtually ceased for a few years during the height of the Second Intifada, has returned to normal.
But many of these new tourists want their itinerary to include a glimpse of Israel's decidedly unsexy side, too. Two colleagues of mine recently made a trip to Hebron, the city in the West Bank in which Palestinians and Israeli settlers live with their hair standing on end, baring teeth at one another ready for attack. The trip was organized by Breaking the Silence, a group of former Israeli soldiers, who show tourists what the Israeli army is being asked to do to protect the settlers and cow the local Palestinian residents into submission. One person described it as a twisted Disneyland, another as a zoo, watching people live their lives sealed off behind barbed wire.
By far the most popular stop on the socially responsible travel itinerary is the Separation Barrier dividing Israelis from
Palestinians. In the past three years I have been invited dozens of
times to 
More Sexy Israel: Kobi Israel's homoerotic photos of IDF soldiers have enhanced Israel's standing on the queer travel circuitparticipate in these trips.
The separation barrier, or "wall" as it is often referred to, runs much of the length of the West Bank, weaving in and out of the Green Line that serves as the internationally recognized border of Israel. Building of the wall began with Ariel Sharon's government as a response to the Second Intifada, ostensibly to protect Israelis from violent Palestinian incursions. For most Israelis and Palestinians, the barrier has become its own de facto border, despite insistent denials from the Israeli government that the barrier is intended to mark a border.
In Jerusalem, the wall is at its most notorious as it scars the landscape with huge twenty foot slabs of concrete. One can see the wall from many parts of the city, and several different political groups have created tours of the wall for visitors.
The number of organizations getting involved in "socially responsible tourism" grows each time I return. Almost all the tours are led by left-of-center social change organizations who try to shake the complacency of travelers who only experience Israel as a normal tourist destination with its ancient ruins, museums, good restaurants, hotels and beaches.
The feminist group Machsom Watch, which monitors the checkpoints for Israeli human rights' violations, takes visitors to see the checkpoints that regulate Palestinian movement. Breaking the Silence takes visitors to the Wall and to Hebron. Ir Amim (City of Nations), Women in Black, Rabbis for Human Rights, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and others all offer their own tours of the effects of the Israeli occupation.
Israelis, on both the right and the left ends of the political
spectrum, take the tours to better understand what is happening
within their own country. Most of the international tourists who
participate are like me, people who spend much time in Israel, who
engage the country deeply, and are troubled by some of its politics
and
Not So Sexy Israel: The separation barrier attracts more tourists every year policies.
There are also one-time tourists, of all religious and ethnic backgrounds, sometimes Europeans, sometimes American Jews, who have seen the standard tourist sites like the Old City and historic ruins, but who now want to see in person the places which they read about on a regular basis in their local newspapers.
And for American Jews who usually see travel to Israel as a form of identity travel, the tours are a way of showing them the implications of racialized occupation, as well as the harsh reality of what Israel as a state does in the name of the Jews.
The best, most sophisticated tours show not just the hardships that the wall imposes on Palestinian residents—who are now on occasion separated from their jobs, schools, and family by concrete—but also what motivated the Israeli government to put up the wall in the first place: very real fears about violence carried out by Palestinians living just miles away.
Socially responsible travel recognizes that tourism is too often about not engaging the place to which one travels. It's instead about searching out fantasies like those in the photo spreads of Maxim. But tourists have power: they can support or destroy local economies, and support or resist political and social situations that a traveler might find reprehensible at home. When tourists spend their dollars in countries like China visiting the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, should they also be invested in encouraging political change by meeting dissident journalists and Falun Gong members?
Separation barrier tourists, both Jewish and not, are choosing to engage, to see political realities that are usually masked by the tour guides on their overly air conditioned buses that zoom from place to place. In the future, as people become more sensitive to the political implications of their travel choices, perhaps a visit to the separation wall will become a standard stop on the average tourist's visit to Israel.
 |
David Shneer is director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Associate Professor of History at the University of Denver. His most recent book New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora (New York University, 2005) questions whether Jews around the |
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LY
Yes, they should decorate it a bit and make it into a tourist attraction a la The Great Wall Of China.
David N. Friedman
Perhaps the most basic take American Jews can assume is one of reflexive support for the safety and prosperity of the Jewish state of Israel.
This is a conflict that puts Jews at the center and on a precipice--if the community at large cannot simply and clearly demonstrate support for Israel--it will have a much harder time of survival in the future.
Time and again, people can sense that the Arabs have a greater interest in the heart of the Jewish homeland, Jerusalem, than the Jews. It is because young secular Jews like the writer of this thread have become shamed by propaganda into thinking that Israel is the problem and the Arabs are victims. Further, they have been assured that there is nothing in Judaism to be proud. What could be worse than the suggestion contained in this thread than for Jews who have never been to Israel to first see Israel as "socially responsible" by taking a tour of the barrier--in the same way one might visit social dissidents in China? Huh? What an outrage!
This is surely an Arab propagandist's dream. Get young Jews to protest Israel and actually have them come to Israel--not to find their Jewish roots or the Jewish souls--but to make common cause with those who wish to destroy them! Under the banner of being socially responsible--the argument that it is vital to see how the Arabs have been harmed is quite a contortion. Indeed, news of Arab suffering at the hands of the Jews is such a commonplace accusation--we hardly need it to come from the Jews themselves--wanting to give the phony accusation needed credibility.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are so popular, what would happen if Jews started to announce that the book was actually partially true?
Dr Appelbaum
I have some suggestions. The writer of this screed should include taking tourists to family members of terror victims and have them throw stones and ridicule the family members. This would make everyone feel good and self-important
Anonymous
“More and more tourists want to see Israel's darker side” David Shneer
Dark side, what dark side?
Trying to stop suicide bombers and building barriers to do so is that the dark side.
I’d like to see tourists being taken to bombed out restaurants or better still to go to Sderot while the rockets are falling on the town.
These tourists should be grateful that they don’t face the threat of suicide bombers while they see “the dark side.”
Maybe they should pray at the barrier walls as if it were the Wailing Wall.
Marc
This is interesting. While the concerns that each of the above comments raise are certainly merited, I hardly think that socially responsible tourism should be equated with Arab propaganda. Indeed, both sides of the wall/barrier should be equally considered,. However, I would venture to say that the situation is so complicated and heated that one would have to look at each of these tour groups and figure out what type of ideology is driving the tour itself. That's the responsible thing to do I think. Shneer mentions this as quality of the most sophisticated tours, which seems to be ignored by the rest of the commentators.
That said, it would be good to remind us all that Israeli statehood emerged not only under a microscope, but also at a time when many of the founding practices that most countries engaged in, whether it's violence, the displacement of people, the (re)structuring of borders, or the establishment of laws that often favor the new members of the nation etc, were not readily acknowledged or at least "kept behind closed doors." It wasn't really until post-1967 that Israel lost its favor with the left. So when the culture wars that emerged in the US in the 1960s that paid particular attention to counter-narratives, the demythologization of the founding narratives and conception of terms like the "West," as well as the large scale complicity of say, colonialism in the Western world, Israel found itself lumped into that category. Zionism (as if that's one thing) suddenly appeared as a colonizing ideology supporting and driving the state of Israel. I note all of this because it is crucial to tease out three related, but wholly different terms, Zionist, Israeli, and Jewish.
Shneer writes
<i>"And for American Jews who usually
see travel to Israel as a form of identity travel,
the tours are a way of showing them the implications of racialized
occupation, as well as the harsh reality of what Israel as a state
does in the name of the Jews."<i>
This is somewhat problematic and perhaps I read too much into this passage. In the name of the Jews. Really? This from an author who problematizes the monolithic use of the term "Jew" and suggests variant expressions of Judaism worldwide as an expression of the new Jew. I only point this out because much of the criticism that Israel receives, sometimes correctly (ongoing settlement construction during peace talks) and sometimes unfairly (why is Israel always under a microscope? certainly other countries are doing far worse things). This is based upon a conflation of the three terms, Jewish, Zionist and Israeli. All of this generally forces the banal slogan that "anti-Israel equals antisemitism" and produces some of the more reactionary comments seen above.
If socially responsible tourism--whether in Israel or America's history of slavery--is going to be taken seriously by anyone other than say, people who already agree with the objectives/principles of the tour itself then it's not very progressive nor is it actually doing anything except preaching to the choir. More attention should be given to the dual sided tours that seek to address the situation as a real and well, complicated, rather than simple ideology.
Anonymous
To those so angered by David Shneer's take on how tourism is shifting in Israel, I would suggest that we *also* include a tour of Palestinian-owned homes that have been overtaken by Israeli settlers (and nothing done by Israel or the IDF) ... and how about a visit to Palestinian areas with little to no water because Israel has diverted the water away from the area ... and I can easily take you to a friend's former home in Ramallah - or what's left of it - because it was destroyed by the IDF ... and we can also meet her young daughter suffering from PTSD as a result of being repeatedly woken up in the middle of the night by the IDF pointing guns in their faces.
This doesn't deny - nor would I speculate that David Shneer does - that Israeli citizens have suffered and died as a result of bombings. But the situation's just not so simplistic, heh?
Anonymous
which is also socially responsible.
Oh, wait they'll cut your head off if you take you teddy bear with you or if you want to enter Saudi Arabia and are a Jew.
I am not surprised that David Shnoor a man who wrote a book with the title "the end of the diaspora" would engage in wishful thinking.
Anonymous
What is "socialy responsible" about swallowing Arab propaganda about the supposed injustice of the barrier and of checkpoints and calling them israel's "dark side"? If the Arabs/Muslims weren't so wedded to their deatch cult of suicide terrorism against Jews, there would be no need for the barrier. Israel could, and would, take down the barrier in a second if the Arabs and Muslims were serious about peace and stopped their endless terror. Causing people some delays and hardships at checkpoints is a small price to pay for stopping terrorism. And those who suffer the delays and hardships have only their fellow Arabs and Muslims to blame, not Israel.
Personally, after seeing that Maxim photo shoot, I'd like to expand "socially responsible" tourism to the female IDF barracks!
Elvis Baldwell
Can someone tell me where I can tour the tunnels that the Pals smuggles arms from Egypt? Can I take a peek at Yassser Arafat's medical record so I can find out where he got HIV? Can I visit Josephs Tomb in Nablus? Can I visit the building where two Israeli reservists were lynched-perhaps their blood is still present? Can I visit the Al Yisrael synagogue in Jericho? I have no sympathies with the Pals. If you choose war, you cant expect economic development as a consequence. General Sherman said "War is hell". Why should it be hell for the Israelis as well. Perhaps the writers of the garbage column above should try homoerotic comeones in al Aqsa mosque.
Anonymous
Umm, excuse me, but have any of the folks who put up the hostile posts above, especially the ones attacking the author of the article, ever heard of the phrase "shooting the messenger"?
The author was writing about this phenomenon, not necessarily urging people to take these tours. This was an essay on a site devoted to opinion pieces, so it wasn't an objective piece of reporting, but it wasn't an advocacy screed either. If your head is stuck so far in the sand that you don't realize that LOTS of Israelis and travelers to Israel do in fact view the situation the way Shneer describes, then well, that's just sad for you. Shneer didn't come up with the idea that people debate what they consider "the implications of racialized occupation, as well as the harsh reality of what Israel as a state does in the name of the Jews." If you've never engaged with the ideas of the Israeli and American Jewish left on this, well, then that's your fault. Whether you agree with it or not is a separate question. The point is, Shneer is talking about something that very much engages a relatively large number of people.
This brings me to the second point, "hijacking the conversation." How much more interesting this thread would have been if people actually talked about the substance of his essay - about what motivates this sort of "tourism" and why it's so popular at this moment. And maybe someone could have brought up the "right wing" tourism that is also very common in Israel - such as the helicopter tours that AIPAC-inspired hawks give to foreign correspondents so they can see, visually, how narrow Israel is at it's mid-point. Both sides use "facts on the ground" to argue their points. The interesting conversation here is about how that plays out, not about the general dynamics of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. There are plenty of other opportunities to rant on about that.
ruthcohenharif
this terrible tragedy has been going on for a few years with the tourish mihistry etc
of course our rabbi's do not speak out as usual. and suddenly we have a spate of child abuse, rapes, murders including in the religious world. and still there is silence. we need to let the world know that israel is a holy country. sodom and gomorrah were destroyed guess why not because they were holy.
all these horrible pervions are killing this land -some of our children wa lk around looking like whores. th ank god for the religious children who do not and look so beautiful like the sons and daughters of king david. i am not talking about the shmattes of mea shearim where a 20 year old girl looks like she is 100. ugh.
i am totally against perversions of every kind,and am presently pursing and hunting down one of the most notrious sexual predators in jerusalem. a rabbi zalman cohen from south africa. i am accumulating info about his activities.
he is a very busy boy. he does life coachng as a front to find victims. he looks for
abused women, new immigrants, converts, even married women, must be insecure, gulliable, trusting type of women abused ones are the best victims, like me.
i was drugged and raped by him 6 years ago when i first came to jerusalem after running from a violent abusive husband of 22 years marriage. he got me like he has got so many over 20 years career.
i am closing him down, there is also haim dressed in white and goes after little girls for years, he also made the mistake to proposition me on the street, he is very dangerous, in and out of mental homes,
so all these totally wicked people who exploit sex to sell israel are inviting all the perverts of the world to rape our children.
watch out i am going to stop all of you
dont even bother coming
i am your worst nightmare
ruth guarding jerusalem
ruthcohenharif
this terrible tragedy has been going on for a few years with the tourish mihistry etc
of course our rabbi's do not speak out as usual. and suddenly we have a spate of child abuse, rapes, murders including in the religious world. and still there is silence. we need to let the world know that israel is a holy country. sodom and gomorrah were destroyed guess why not because they were holy.
all these horrible pervions are killing this land -some of our children wa lk around looking like whores. th ank god for the religious children who do not and look so beautiful like the sons and daughters of king david. i am not talking about the shmattes of mea shearim where a 20 year old girl looks like she is 100. ugh.
i am totally against perversions of every kind,and am presently pursing and hunting down one of the most notrious sexual predators in jerusalem. a rabbi zalman cohen from south africa. i am accumulating info about his activities.
he is a very busy boy. he does life coachng as a front to find victims. he looks for
abused women, new immigrants, converts, even married women, must be insecure, gulliable, trusting type of women abused ones are the best victims, like me.
i was drugged and raped by him 6 years ago when i first came to jerusalem after running from a violent abusive husband of 22 years marriage. he got me like he has got so many over 20 years career.
i am closing him down, there is also haim dressed in white and goes after little girls for years, he also made the mistake to proposition me on the street, he is very dangerous, in and out of mental homes,
so all these totally wicked people who exploit sex to sell israel are inviting all the perverts of the world to rape our children.
watch out i am going to stop all of you
dont even bother coming
i am your worst nightmare
ruth guarding jerusalem
ruthcohenharif
ruth cohen harif
ruthcohenharif
once again another expert who knows the best for us who actually live here.
once again another sympathiser with terrorists, why dont you invite hamas to coffee
have you ever met someone from hamas
i have a few times, all these violent hateful men.
first let me tell you that i dont want walls, i want tokick out each and every enemy of israel today, arabs all of them yes even the good ones who helped in the 4 attacks in jerusalem, now akka, yes those good ones. all the non jews like muslims from africa. yes i have no sympathy for muslims who want to live on the stupidity of our government while our chldren are starving and they are.
we are a little country and cannot help the world. i lived in africa for over 30 years and very much love the black people. but they were christains first of all and people that showed respect to god and man.them i would help . muslims never never never
europe has been swallowed by the muslim world wake up you idiots, also america,when they start doing to you what they do to us, full scale you will stop being so quick to sympathise with them.
all left wing jews who are so busy spreading their hatred for the rest of us, which is thejmajority, we are all settlers by the way and we all live in settlements.,tel aviv is a settlement too, golly gosh did you not know that expert - wow what a surprise -
all these a very tiny percentage of jews here,are welcome to practice what they preach in saudi arabis, iran, and walk around naked and have gay parades. dont do it here, we the people hate and despise these things, the common man is disgusted that the country is hijacked by a minute number of influential people, livni got in on l%
thats called a dictorship -tzipi means bird in hebrew so we have a bird brain in charge. yipee. the courts, media, etc are controlled by a very small select group of evil stupid people - intellectuals. most people here are too dumb to be intellectuals but they do understand truth, honesty, integrity, decent behaviour which none of our elite have not even l%.
so get out all those who want to destroy, demonize and sell out my land. do you know how much land is bought up by saudia arabia, i will take you on a tour - how many illegal villas and houses the arabs are building on our jewish land for many many years, want a tour.
the only people who are welcome here, jews non-jews, are those who love the jews, and do not want to destroy us.. those who respect the torah. the asians who stand in wonder at the kotel and give us blessings are most welcome.the c hristains who are going to be at the sukkot parade in a few days shining with joy and blessings for us are welcome but do not come to convert us. enemies out now. we the people have spoken and so it will be. all the garbage is getting out of the holy land.
now my story with terrorists, the first one only. i was 18 years old and came back home to israel after being away for 12 years. i met an american david(jew) we were supposed to get married. he was like you clueless about the reality of israel. we were in jerusalem and he comes to me and says we are going to meet the plo tonight. it was illegal then. i came from south africa where no decent person broke the law inthose days.1974. i was afraid of breaking the law not of the plo. i went but not happy about it. we went into a house, and walked down a long corridor and there was a man waiting for us. he was a very violent arab who spoke with such viciousness - he kept saying - the israelis with this heavy accent
i dont remember what else he said just the israelis blaming them for everything
he was all pure evil engergy. i kept my eyes down knowing that if he looked into my eyes he would see that i am born here even though i dont even look jewish, and look like a tourist and speak perfect english. i did not talk and just prayed for safety.
david was pissing in his pants with fear, he was being all intellectual and talking like you do, same crap. i was not afraid. i knew i was going to die.
i said to myself, i am 18, never got married, never had kids, never travelled all over the world, never did all the things i so wanted to do, and today i am going to die. i was very calm knowing that nothing could be done. wehad walked willingly into a pit of snakes and there were no cell phones. anyway why shuld i endanger the police when i was the idiot who endangered myself just because of david and his blind faith.
we started to walk out the house, i felt daggers being plunged into my back. i was waiting every second to die and then we were outside. david never said one word to me ever again about his sympathies for them ,or anything else. he was too ashamed.
i still can not believe that we survived. had the man looked into my eyes i would have been dead. other arabs look at me and say - you are an israeli when jews dont recognise me as a jew.
i have more stories, but if you dont believe this one whats the point.
watch out for terrorists they want you dead as well as me.king david did not drink coffee and negotiate with murderers of jews, he killed them.
i am with david. way to go. i really dont give a damn what your great wisdom is. you are contributing to the death of more jews with all this liberial lies.
every jew that dies put it on your conscience, the god in the heaven holds everyone responsible for his words and deeds. direct or indirect encouragement of terrorists is a sin. no exception.
they are behind walls to stop them killing us - idiot - every day dozens are stopped
you have not been at a bomb site have you when the boom went off behind your back, there is a girl who has survived 5 and she is young. i was only at one at the shuik when olmert was there a few years ago. experience it and then tell me how much love and understanding terrorists deserve. i saw them take a young boy on a strecher out all his clothes were torn off, he was religious and naked and full of blood. i went to all the media and spoke to all of them. portugues, spanish, italian, usa and so many more saying we are staying here no matter what go and tell the world we are staying here no matter what and no matter how many deaths.
you dont have passion for your own life but you are willing to throw mine away. why is your life more precious than mine or the little babies killed on our buses and cafes. how dare you deceide whose life is precious. appartently i was supposed to survive my stupiity to meet the plo - maybe to warn you
after that i never had a second of sympathy for any terrorist anywhere
the mans voice dripping with jewish blood saying the israelis haunts me. he was some big shot of the plo - hopefully the bastard is dead. and not out there teaching others to kill jews and converting stupid americans like you and david
i left david a few months later, i deceided nothing was better than an idiot like him. he also condemned south africa without ever knowing anything about it. he gave me cry the beloved country to read and refused to read it himself. he had books about all the weird ideas and religions of everyone but i dont remember jewish books.
i live in jerusalem and my husband is an moroccan, the biggest group of jews who came back to israel. he loves torah, and makes me laugh. he cant understand why people talk to our enemies, and feed them and give them weapons. but then shmuel is just an idiot like me, to stupid to understand the intellectuals destroying israel.
guarding jerusalem
shalom
ruth
AAAlijah
>If you CHOOSE war< ???
Who is occupying who? Israel cannot expect peace until it leaves West Bank, gives open access between Gaza and West bank and geographically allows them to be connected. No country can be built in two seperate pieces, and survive.
Its about time to end the conflict! Christians are being victimized in the center of all the fighting in Israel-Palestine.